Former Mobile County commissioner Stephen Nodine is shown at the Baldwin County courthouse in Bay Minette, Alabama, in this photograph from 2010. (Press-Register/Bill Starling)

BAY MINETTE, Alabama -- In a heated meeting, Baldwin County District Attorney’s investigators on the Stephen Nodine murder case repeatedly questioned and yelled at a medical examiner about why the doctor had ruled Angel Downs’ death a suicide, according to testimony this morning.

Dr. Eugene Hart later changed his report from suicide to inconclusive, according to testimony.

Hart testified today, though, that he doesn't recall being yelled at during the meeting, although he couldn't say that it didn't happen. He said the meeting happened just before he testified in front of a grand jury.

He said that after the meeting, his opinion was suicide, but he issued the report as inconclusive “because although our findings were consistent with suicide, the law enforcement agencies still thought this was a homicide, and we couldn’t prove that it wasn’t a homicide.”

Defense attorneys for Nodine, 48, are seeking to have the murder case against the former Mobile County commissioner thrown out, claiming prosecutorial misconduct in the 2010 investigation and trial that ended with a hung jury.

Angela Brown, a former Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputy, testified that a prosecutor’s investigator yelled at Hart about his conclusions and “at one point, it got very loud.”

She also testified that she suggested Downs’ cell phone, a Blackberry, be sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to retrieve data. But she said that suggestion was ignored.

At trial, then-District Attorney Judy Newcomb maintained it could not be accessed without jeopardizing the data. When District Attorney Hallie Dixon took office in 2011, she hired a forensic examiner who successfully “opened” the device, the defense says.

In the December 2010 trial, a jury couldn’t reach a verdict on whether Nodine stalked and killed Downs, his longtime girlfriend.

Newcomb no longer is in office, but Nodine’s lawyers argue that her conduct was so egregious that the only fair remedy is to dismiss the charges.

Newcomb is in the courtroom today and on several occasions has appeared frustrated by the testimony about her office’s handling of the case.

Earlier in the day, attorneys mentioned two "jailhouse snitches" -- cell mates with Nodine at a Florida prison -- who have since come forward with statements about Nodine.

Special prosecutor David Whetstone said one of the cell mates said Nodine spoke the words "I got away with it."

Defense attorney John Beck attempted to cast doubt on their credibility, saying one faces capital murder charges and another pleaded guilty in federal court to drug conspiracy.

Outside of court, Whetstone declined to go into more detail about those potential witnesses.